About Time
by TheKeyToDestiny
Summary: Shishido Ryou has been bickering with a girl ever since his childhood days, and the regulars have had enough of their bickers. They think that's about time that they got together. They devise a plan to get them together. (Shishido Ryou X OC) Please R&R!


**I recently started reading the New Prince of Tennis manga again, and I decided to write some short stories for this series. This will be a romance one-shot featuring Hyoutei's Shishido Ryou and an OC. Hopefully none of the characters are OOC, I haven't been writing for this fandom for a while now, so I may have made some mistakes.**

 **Characters: Shishido Ryou & Takahashi Rina (OC)**

 **Timeline: After the National Championships but ignores the New Prince of Tennis time line, so there is no U-17 camp in this story.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Prince of Tennis.**

* * *

 _Italics – Thoughts_

 _ **Italics + Bold = Internal Conflicts**_

* * *

Shishido Ryou was known as Hyoutei's dash specialist and one-half of Hyoutei's famed doubles team. However he was also known for his temper and his determination, the latter of which was how he got back onto the regulars spot after losing to Fudomine's Tachibana Kippei in the districts tournament. But he has learnt and changed a lot after his loss but one thing that hasn't changed would be his temper. And it didn't help that Hyoutei's girls' team was apparently a lot better than the girls' team as they were able to qualify for the nationals every year and they won the nationals when Shishido was a first year, and three of the regulars at that time were first years as well.

Even after the nationals were over, Shishido and his doubles partner Ootori Choutarou, were often compared to their female counterparts, Takahashi Rina and Kikumaru Nanami. Kikumaru Nanami, the younger cousin of Seigaku's Kikumaru Eiji, was a second year serve and player whose skills were at least as good as her cousin's. Nanami's partner, Takahashi Rina, was a third year serve and volley player as well. But she was well known for her Aqua Jet serve which was slightly faster than Ootori Choutarou's Neo Scud Serve at 220km/hr. Shishido refused to believe it initially that someone else had surpassed Ootori Choutarou's Neo Scud Serve other than Echizen Ryoma, and that person was much less a girl, a girl who was also his rival/enemy.

It was well known in Hyoutei that Shishido Ryou and Takahashi Rina do not get along with each other, despite being childhood friends along with Akutagawa Jirou and Mukahi Gakuto. They always find something to bicker about, they bicker about almost everything under the sun. But their teachers are quite thankful that the two do not have any similar classes, and the only time that they will meet each other are during lunch and tennis practice. But these two periods were more than enough for the two to start bickering. While the members initially found it annoying, it eventually became an inside joke and a humorous event every practice. While the girls and boys teams do not have the same practice schedules and clubrooms, they do come over to help every week.

But the Hyoutei regulars have had enough of their bickers, as they have been bickering with each other since they were kids and they did not like having to comfort Rina after her bickers with Shishido, where he usually said something bad about her. It was tiring and annoying to deal with this almost every day, but even if the other regulars didn't do anything about it, they would still find a way to bicker the very next day. On very rare occasions, they were quite civil with each other, conversing properly and not bickering with each other. The regulars thought that their behaviour on such days were creepy and outright strange, and they preferred them to be bickering. But the two would retort that the others liked to see them not bickering thus contradicting their statements. This made the other regulars mad as their moods would fluctuate drastically between seconds.

However, Oshitari Yuushi deduced that Shishido and Rina probably liked each other but had no idea about it, as they have known each other since they were kids and that they have acted this way with each other since they were kids, and that they thought that things wouldn't change between them. That was what Shishido probably thought anyway, Rina was not that dense to not know her own feelings so it was probably only on Shishido's side.

"That only happens in movies and novels, Yuushi!" Said Gakuto, when he heard Yuushi's deduction.

The entire team of regulars, both boys and girls and Taki Haginosuke who was now the boys' team's manager, were currently at Atobe's house without the two main characters after Sakaki-sensei asked them to resolve the problem between Shishido and Rina as soon as possible. And they had more free time now that the Nationals were over, so Atobe decided to hold a meeting at his house to discuss the problem and hopefully find the reason behind their bickers.

"Oshitari does have a valid point, they are been childhood friends and they just probably don't realise that their relationship has now changed." Pointed out Maeda Yuko, the vice-captain of the girls' tennis team.

"Shishido wants her attention but he doesn't know how, so he picks on her instead, very cliché if you ask ore-sama." Said Atobe, while shaking his head.

"Now that I think of it, they were pretty much the same when we were kids." Said Gakuto.

"R-Ryou made her cry once when we were kids, I don't remember about what but I remember Rina-chan crying. G-Gakuto and I had to call her parents, and Ryou was grounded after that. I don't remember if Ryou ever apologised to Rina-chan about that." Said Jirou, with a few yawns in between his words.

"He didn't, I remember that day. It was horrible, Rina fell and had a bruise on her knee. Ryou teased her instead of helping her up and he pulled her hair, which made Rina cry even harder. We were at my house, and my mum called Rina's mum who took her home. I remember Jirou and myself telling my mum what happened and she told Ryou's mum. And he got grounded for a week after that." Said Gakuto.

"You remember that day quite clearly, Mukahi-san." Said Hiyoshi.

"I remember that day clearly because that was the last peaceful day we had because they started bickering every time they met after that day. They started in school, at first we thought that Rina was in a bad mood because of what happened, it was at first but then they started bickering about almost everything under the sun whenever they meet. It was then that we realised that something happened between them but we don't know what." Said Gakuto, scowling at the memory.

"They used to get along quite nicely when we were younger, then the incident happened and they became like enemies." Yawned Jirou.

"And Rina used to call him Ryou, now she calls him Shishido instead." Said Gakuto.

"I can't believe Shishido-san would do something like that." Said Ootori.

"We all did dumb and stupid things as a kid, Ootori." Said Kitahara Yumi, the captain of the girls' team.

"So what do we do then?" Asked Ootori, asking the most important question of all.

"Lock them in a closet and make them talk?" Suggested Oshitari, with a wry smile.

The girls' team glared at the blue haired tensai while Atobe stroked his chin.

"That could work." Mused Atobe.

"But we must monitor them. We do not want them to do any unnecessary things." Added Atobe.

Ootori went red, Gakuto coughed while Oshitari smirked and Hiyoshi resisted the urge to hit the blue haired tensai.

"Rina might beat him up though, she is probably capable of doing to that especially to Ryou." Pointed out Gakuto.

"We can lock them in the clubroom, there is a CCTV camera in the room and we can view the live footage from Sakaki-sensei's office." Offered Taki.

Atobe snapped his fingers, "That's a good plan, Taki."

"Sakaki-sensei did mention that this coming Monday's afternoon training would be for non-regulars only, the regulars are supposed to supervise, we can use then to carry out the plan." Said Oshitari.

"We don't have practice then." Pointed out Nanami.

"We do need to have a meeting though, we will just pretend to have a meeting and get the two inside the clubroom to talk." Said Atobe.

"But what if they don't talk? We'll be stuck doing nothing for the whole afternoon." Pointed out Gakuto.

"They will talk after they know that they won't let out unless they do." Said Oshitari.

"I guess we have no choice on this matter. We'll leave it up to you Atobe, just text us the details." Sighed Yumi.

"Ore-sama will plan it with Taki, Oshitari and Sakaki-sensei. It should be confirmed by tomorrow afternoon latest." Said Atobe.

"Ore-sama guesses that no one else is opposed to the plan. So we will not proceed with lunch." Said Atobe.

The regulars rolled their eyes as Atobe announced it, but they secretly hoped and prayed that their plan would work.

* * *

On Monday…

Morning practice and lessons went on as usual, and neither Shishido nor Rina suspected anything so the plan was going smoothly so far. The regulars sought permission from Sakaki-sensei to use the CCTV monitor in his office and he allowed them to but only four people were allowed to use it. It was decided that Oshitari, Gakuto, Umeda Miki and Umeda Miyuki would be in the room while Atobe and Yumi had a meeting and the others would oversee the non-regulars training. Shishido and Rina's respective doubles partners, Ootori Choutarou and Kikumaru Nanami, would bring them to the club as planned before locking them in so that they could talk. Nanami and Ootori would later join the others to oversee the non-regulars training.

When class ended, the regulars headed to the tennis courts after getting changed. Nanami and Ootori waited for their respective partner before heading to the clubroom, under the pretence that Atobe and Yumi wanted to meet them. Shishido and Ootori arrived first and with Gakuto's help, they locked Shishido inside the clubroom by having Gakuto ambush the pair. Gakuto pushed Shishido into the room before locking it until Nanami and Rina approached the room. Shishido pounded on the door, shouted for Gakuto and Ootori as well as calling someone else to open the door for him but no one picked up his calls. Gakuto did the same thing to Rina, but Shishido tried to escape however Ootori held him down and the three successfully locked the pair in the clubroom.

"Let me out!" Shouted Shishido.

"We are not letting out until you two resolve your differences. We're all tired of your bickers, it's affecting the team and Sakaki sensei wants it to be sorted out as soon as possible." Retorted Gakuto.

The pounding on the door soon stopped and they heard a sigh through the door, which they took as a sign that Shishido had given up trying to escape. They asked Kabaji to keep watch outside the room while Gakuto headed back to Sakaki-sensei's office while Ootori and Nanami headed to the courts.

* * *

Inside the room…

Shishido groaned and hit the door once last time before sighing. Rina avoided his gaze and headed over to the other side of the room, with her faded ice blue hair, which was tied into twin tails, drooping by the sides of her head.

" _Dammit, now I'll have to talk to Rina to get out of here." Groaned Shishido._

Shishido secretly glanced over at Rina who was doing her homework, while not looking in his direction at all. Shishido decided that he should do his homework as well, to pass time, not that he had a lot of homework today. Shishido started on his only piece of homework which was a history essay. Thankfully, history was one of his best subjects and he was able to finish it within an hour. But he still had another two hours until practice officially ended, so he had to find some way to talk to Rina, as much as he didn't want to.

But Shishido had no idea what he did that made Rina upset, they've always been bickering ever since they were kids, and they usually never argued on her birthday, his birthday and other special days. But now that Shishido thought about it, most of the bickers were started by him, he usually said something that made Rina upset during their bickers. She would then ignore him for the rest of the day before they bickered again the next day. They rarely had proper conversations with each other and on the days that they didn't bicker, they often didn't speak to each other at all unless necessary.

Shishido silently noticed that Rina had finished her work and was avoiding his gaze once again. Shishido cleared his throat awkwardly and Rina looked at him. Shishido quickly ran over to her to stop her from walking away.

"We aren't going to let out of here until we talk." Mumbled Shishido.

"What do you want?" Asked Rina, folding her arms.

Shishido frowned and folded his arms, "I'm still not sure what exactly I did to make you so mad. If you would kindly enlighten me."

Shishido saw Rina's eye twitch before she jumped forward and grabbed his collar. Shishido scowled and grabbed Rina's hands to pull them away from his collar.

"I was being nice!" Hissed Shishido.

Rina scoffed and let go of Shishido's collar, luckily the boy didn't fall as he was taller than her. "Being nice? As if you would be to me!"

"Yah! What did I exactly do to make you so mad?" Shouted Shishido.

"You're doing it right now!" Hissed Rina.

"What?" Asked a very confused Shishido, although he was still mad about everything.

"You're being a jerk!" Spluttered Rina, before she started crying.

Shishido was taken aback by her statement, had he really been such a jerk to her?

"O-Oi." Stuttered Shishido, not knowing what to do about this situation.

Shishido wanted to say that crying was lame, but he didn't want to make the situation worse. And then it dawned on him, about what Rina meant about him such a jerk. Shishido remembered and realised that he always said something insensitive that made Rina upset, like commenting on whatever she did. Shishido never realised that whatever he had said in the past had affected Rina more than what he had thought. But did she not say anything to him and why did she always bicker with him?

Shishido snapped back to reality when he realised that he should do something with Rina. Shishido mentally cursed himself before he did the right thing. Shishido helped Rina up, much to her surprise. Rina was surprised yet again when Shishido pulled her into his arms.

"It's okay, you can cry it out. I'll listen, it's my fault anyway." Said Shishido, awkwardly.

Their hugging position was quite awkward as it was the first time he had hugged a girl other than his female family members.

Rina nodded and cried into Shishido's chest, and he could only pat her back slowly. Rina eventually stopped crying and she pulled away from Shishido rubbing her eyes while hiccupping.

"Sorry for making your blazer wet." Hiccupped Rina.

"I-It's alright, it was my fault that you cried anyway." Said Shishido, awkwardly.

There was complete silence until Shishido cleared his throat awkwardly. "I'm sorry for always making you upset, I never realised that what I said affected you so much."

"I-It's okay, I'm sorry too. I got a little carried away sometimes." Said Rina, looking down at the floor.

Shishido nodded but something still bugged him, why did he like to bicker and pick on Rina, there had to be a good reason why he did it right?

* * *

" _ **Of course, there is a good reason!" Said a tiny version of Oshitari, dressed in all white with angel wings and complete with a halo.**_

" _ **You like her, obviously! And you wanted her attention but you didn't know how, so you bothered and picked on her." Said another tiny version of Oshitari, but this time dressed in all black with devil wings and horns.**_

" _ **You were not aware of your own feelings that is why you picked on her." Said the angel.**_

" _ **But since you picked on her so much, she probably won't like you back. You were too mean to her and besides falling in love was lame of you in the first place!" Said the devil.**_

" _ **No! Being in love is a good thing! It's not useless! You just have to tell her how you feel, I'm sure she'll understand. You didn't fall in love with her for nothing, I'm sure that she'll forgive you!" Said the angel.**_

" _Wait! Wait! So you're telling me that I like Rina? That's why I picked on her? And who are the two of you by the way?" Asked Shishido._

" _ **We're your conscience of course! Haven't you been watching TV or reading books? Things like this happen all the time!" Replied the devil, while crossing his arms and rolling his eyes.**_

" _ **You don't have to be so rude, devil-san. But he is right we are your conscience." Said the angel, calmly.**_

" _But if the two of you are my conscience, then why do you two look like Oshitari and not me?" Asked Shishido._

" _ **Well, if that's the way you want it!" Pouted the devil, before he turned into a tiny Shishido Ryou dressed in the same outfit as before.**_

" _ **W-Wait, devil-san!" Said the angel, before he too turned into a tiny Shishido Ryou dressed in the same outfit as before.**_

" _ **Now, we look like you!" Said the devil, with a smirk.**_

" _ **Now, go and tell her how you feel! It's the best and fastest way to make up with her!" Said the angel.**_

* * *

Shishido cleared his throat before he took a deep breath as Rina looked at him.

"I did some thinking, and I came to a realisation. I picked on you because…" Rina looked at Shishido curiously before he continued speaking. "I-I wanted your attention!"

Rina was confused and Shishido continued to explain. "When we got to middle school, I realised that you changed, you got more attention from other guys, and I didn't like that. I wanted you to have your attention on me again, like before, so I-I picked on you and bickered with you. I didn't realise that I was being selfish and it hurt you."

"I'm sorry for being so dense, but I understand it now. I understand why I did that to you." Said Shishido, closing his eyes.

Rina was silent as Shishido was speaking, she was just as surprised as he was, he had probably just realised it.

"I-It's because I-I like you!" Blurted Shishido, opening his eyes just before he spoke.

Shishido was surprised when Rina started crying again. But this time, Rina ran to Shishido for a hug which he accepted.

"O-Oi! W-What's wrong?" Asked Shishido, not knowing what to do once again.

"N-Nothing! It's just that I'm happy!" Said Rina.

Shishido was confused until Rina looked up and pecked Shishido's cheek.

"I-I like you too, Ryou-kun!" Said Rina, shyly.

Shishido was surprised but he felt himself crying. "I'm s-sorry making you upset all the time! I didn't expect you to r-return the feelings, I didn't expect you to f-forgive me!"

Shishido tightened the hug, not wanting it to end as Rina patted his back.

"I was upset, but I realised that you had no idea how I felt and probably how you felt too." Said Rina.

Rina smiled and pulled away from the hug, while looking at Shishido.

"Let's start over again, but I can't promise that I won't tease you." Grinned Shishido.

Rina pouted and fumed while Shishido chuckled. "It is not common for a boyfriend to tease his girlfriend?"

"But I'm not your girlfriend!" Said Rina, with a small smirk.

Shishido was surprised before Rina giggled.

"You didn't ask me to be your girlfriend, Ryou-kun!" Giggled Rina.

Shishido broke into a smile and ruffled Rina's hair before he hugged her once again.

"Takahashi Rina, will you go out with me?" Asked Shishido, with a bright smile.

Rina smiled and nodded, "Yes!"

Shishido chuckled and hugged her close before he pulled apart slightly to press a quick but gentle peck on her lips. Rina was surprised but she smiled and snuggled into Shishido's hug, and this lasted for a few minutes.

The new couple were enjoying their moment when the door burst open to reveal a smirking Oshitari Yuushi and Mukahi Gakuto and a red-faced Ootori Choutarou and Kikumaru Nanami. Kabaji was also standing outside the door, preferring to not enter the room.

"We saw everything through the CCTV, Shishido." Smirked Yuushi.

Shishido scowled at the former two for ruining the moment as Oshitari adjusted his glasses while keeping his smirk.

"Choutarou! Never learn from these two when it comes to romance!" Said Shishido, which caused Choutarou's blush to deepen.

"Like you're any better!" Retorted Rina.

Ootori and Nanami visibly paled while Gakuto glared at Oshitari, as they may have made the situation worse.

But Shishido could only groan but he glared at Oshitari and Gakuto while Rina laughed.

"But it is okay, everything worked out in the end, and I kind of liked our bickers, they were fun." Laughed Rina.

Gakuto faced palmed, "As much as I would love to congratulate you for coming up with such a good plan Yuushi, I think you've just made the issue worse. They'll probably bicker just to get on our nerves."

"Now now, Gakuto. All of this is a part of romance, there's no need to get so agitated." Assured Oshitari.

But Gakuto did not believe it and scowled. "Yuushi, if anything happens after this, we are holding you liable!"

"Will you two stop it?" Shouted Shishido, clearly annoyed by the pair's antics while Ootori and Nanami are still red-faced.

"C-Congratulations, Shishido-sempai. Takahashi-sempai." Stuttered Nanami, still shy about the conversation.

"Congratulations, Shishido-san. Takahashi-sempai." Said Ootori, shyly.

"Now that that's cleared up, how about we get back to practice? Sakaki-sensei is expecting us." Said Oshitari.

"The two of you better not bicker again, otherwise we'll be in deep trouble!" Said Gakuto.

Ootori and Nanami were quick to push Oshitari and Gakuto out the door with Shishido and Rina exiting behind them. Kabaji locked the door before following them.

Atobe was quite pleased with the news and so was Sakaki-sensei but the latter warned the team to be careful and not slack off when being in a relationship. The rest of the team were quite happy with the news too, knowing that an obstacle had been cleared but they were unaware that Oshitari Yuushi had expected this to happen and he was already planning his second matchmaking plot. After all, he had the most experience with relationships, with all that he learned from reading his books. They had to work, after all, there is nothing like romance to soften someone up.

* * *

 **Tada! Completed! I actually quite like this one-shot. Next one-shot is probably about Ootori Choutarou or Marui Bunta!**

 **Thank you for reading! Please leave a review or favourite this story!**


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